Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

I hear a comment from the crossbenchers. What I have actually said in the past is that we should pull in the multinationals to make them pay their fair share of tax in Australia. I am trying to get a balance here. We can start to rein in the debt. If we do not start to rein in the debt we will not be able to look after the pensioners, the aged, the sick and the needy. You cannot keep giving and giving and giving. It does not work that way. We need to start being balanced in our views in this house. We are the leaders of this nation. Start working together. That is what the people of this nation want. Stop being so negative in what you are doing here. The people are listening and watching. And, as I have said, do not criticise me. I remember that it was just a couple of days ago, or maybe it was even yesterday, when I said that there should be a freezing of politicians' wages until we bring this budget back into surplus. Where were you? Where was Labor? Where were you on the other side of the chamber? You worry about your own pay packets. You do not care about the battlers or the people of this nation. You are a bunch of hypocrites—absolute hypocrites! That is what I say to you. Start looking at yourselves in the mirror, because you are bringing this country down. Start realising that we are the leaders of this nation. Show by example and start reining back in. Stop saying that people, putting a blanket over everyone, are the battlers of this nation. Look at who are the battlers. People are ripping off this system here. Don't you understand that there are people in this country who are truly battlers? We need to look after them. There are people who are ripping off the system. They are not—

Honourable senators interjecting—

The CHAIR: Order! Senator Hanson has the right to be heard in silence. Please respect that right.

There are battlers in this country who are doing it tough with escalating prices, trying to put a roof over their heads and food on their table and pay their escalating costs. It is extremely hard for them to hold a job in this country. I am sick and tired of hearing the Labor Party go on about jobs, when they do not protect the workers in Australia. We need to look at this bill in the right perspective. I think it needs to be reined in. We are not in a vote. I have listened to the minister tonight in his delivery. Those families on tax benefits A and B are not going to be affected. Nothing is going to happen. They are not going to lose their benefits for the next two years. They are not losing their benefits. Nothing is going to change.

Honourable senators interjecting—

I will ask that of the—I am asking that. They are not losing their benefits whatsoever—that is the bottom line. Those on the opposite side, you did not want to lose anything from your—

Senator Dastyari interjecting—

The CHAIR: Senator Dastyari, please allow Senator Hanson to continue her remarks in silence. That goes for other senators as well. Senator Hanson, have you finished your remarks?

Yes, I have.